Tuesday, May 31, 2016

My recurring nightmare is that I’m making a presentation in front of hundreds of people, but I realize that the slide deck I’m using is the wrong one. And I have no idea what picture is going to come on the screen next.

Gulp.

Just thinking about that moment makes me feel helpless and incompetent and unprofessional and completely out of control of my environment and myself. Scary.

But what’s interesting is, that very scenario happened to me once. Five minutes into a workshop I was conducting for a group of sales managers, I looked over at my computer and realized, oh crap, that’s the wrong slide show.

My stomach dropped to the floor. My skin flushed like a fat kid at recess. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. And yet, for some reason, the panic wasn’t as paralyzing as I imagined. Fear wasn’t clawing around in my chest like a trapped animal trying to get out. Because the problem was an easy fix.

You just casually walk over to the laptop, close one document and open another, and get on with the presentation. Nobody even has to notice.

And so, that’s exactly what I did. And in the moment, I thought to myself, wow, that’s it? That’s what I’ve been losing sleep over for years?

Funny how fear does to you. It fools you into believing that it’s as big as your ego says it is. Almost like a form of pretraumatic stress syndrome. The terror and great aversion and mental anguish that results from preparing for the worst before it actually happens.

When the reality is, most of our fears are tissue paper thin. And all it takes is one courageous step to break through the story we’ve built up inside our heads and come out clean on the other side.

Next time you worst nightmare become a reality, sail boldly into the squall of your own fears. Kick fear in the ass and lived to tell the tale.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

What is it time for you to stop being afraid of?LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Monday, May 30, 2016

When you’re practicing yoga in a hundred degree room with forty
percent humidity for ninety minutes straight, the natural inclination is to
medicate your suffering with water. Because it’s cold and refreshing and
hydrating and satisfying.

But as my teacher loves to remind his students, water
is your second lifeline, breathing is your first.

Think about it. When a person
experiences a health emergency, the first thing the paramedics provide is
oxygen. Nobody inserts a water tube up your nose. People need air. Breath is
life. It’s the source of all things.

And nothing against water. It’s a close
second on the scoreboard of human survival. But you can survive for three days
without water. Oxygen is only three minutes.

And so, in yoga class, when the
dizziness and the leg cramps and the dark thoughts come crashing in, the
smartest response is to breathe, not drink. No matter how much money you spent
on that shiny new vacuum insulated double stainless steel water bottle that
keeps contents icy cold for up to eighteen hours, the smartest response is to
breathe.

Oxygen first, water second.

It’s a perfect metaphor for life outside
the yoga studio, too. Because when our suffering becomes intolerable, we’re
given that same choice. We can reach for a crutch to soothe our pain, or we can
regulate and refresh and rebuild ourselves with lifelines that are healthier, and don’t make us have to pee every twenty minutes.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

What’s your preferred method of medicating?LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Sunday, May 29, 2016

There’s nothing more painful than being open beyond our preconceptions and historical ways of making sense.

Accepting that there might be something to learn outside our own experience.

In fact, that’s the engine of all human conflict. Each of us is unconsciously asking ourselves, why can’t everybody else be more like me?

But the reality is, life is much more complicated than our limited imagination. And if we’re left to our own experiences, we suffer from a shortage of data.

Thank god for the magic of creativity. It’s not only the motivator of making art, but the engine of empathy. The major means by which human beings liberate ourselves from the shackles of our conditioned responses and usual choices.

Turns out, the more time and effort and money we invest in our creativity, the more empathetic we become. The more we are able to lift ourselves to new levels of understanding.

And so, we use creativity not only to bring new ideas into being, but also to disrupt our own point of view. To shake the gates of life and test the bolts and hinges of our own brains.

That way, the futurist manifesto states, our eyes, accustomed to semi darkness, will soon open to more radiant visions of life.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

Are you still trying to clone other people in your image by projecting our autobiography onto them?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

When I conduct employee training programs for hotel chains, we spend a good hour telling stories about unforgettable guest experiences.

It’s not only interesting, insightful and entertaining, but it’s a powerful teaching tool. It makes people feel heard and less alone in their hospitality journey.

One hotel concierge recently shared a story that nearly made the entire room tear up.

A guest’s toddler had lost her teddy bear en route to the hotel. And so, she drove to the toy store during her lunch break, bought the exact same model bear and overnighted it to the little girl’s house to greet her when she returned home.

But here’s the best part. The hotel employee also included a handwritten letter from the teddy bear himself, explaining to the toddler that he was gone on very special teddy bear business for the past few days, and how relieved he was to be reunited with his rightful owner.

The little girl was ecstatic. The parents told every single person they knew. And the concierge received a guest service award in the company’s monthly newsletter.

Another story came from the bell captain. Late one night, a guest arrived at the hotel without his luggage, no thanks to the airline that misplaced it. The bellman promptly hustled down the street to the mall, bought two suitcases from the department store, ran back to the man’s room and asked him which of the two bags best resembled the one the airline lost. The guest was speechless.

Both of these stories involve employees who took initiative, owned the problem, spent the money, employed their creativity, personalized the gift, cemented the memory, and as a result, earned lifetime fans of their hotel.

Because the guests couldn’t help but think,wow, that hotel did this just for me?

That’s the kind of story newspapers write articles about. And it’s a thousand times more persuasive than any advertisement. Best of all, it’s free. For those who care about how people’s insides feel.For those who bother to bother.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

Do you make it laughable the amount of time you put into your acts of generosity?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Friday, May 27, 2016

Boundary setting tools don’t have to make sense. Or appear logical. Or even be cost effective.

They just have to work for you. They have to allow you feel okay with yourself and create meaning in accordance with your values.

I have a friend who stays in a hotel every time she goes home to visit her family for the holidays. Which seems redundant and expensive and possibly even insulting to her relatives, but considering how large and chaotic her family can be, the hotel is the only way for her to guarantee her privacy, manage her time and keep herself sane.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make, she tells me. In fact, it was painful the first time she did it. Feelings of guilt and shame and resentment bubbled to the surface like a hot spring. Her parents insisted she was being ridiculous.

And yet, she had the courage to stand up for her boundaries and tell her family, well, tough shit. These are my needs right now.

Sure enough, the family got over it. They respected her space. And now, whenever she comes to visit, everyone can just relax.

Proving, that constraints are the only things that truly set you free. It doesn’t matter if they’re dopey, it matters that they’re yours. You do whatever you have to do to be okay with yourself.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

What will it cost you not to stand up for your boundaries right now?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

In the early stages of a new project, when you’re not quite sure what you want yet, instead of allowing indecision to paralyze forward motion, just start failing until your true desire announces itself. Begin making the wrong choices quickly, quietly and cheaply. Flush all of the bad ideas out of your system first, and that way, you can back into what you really want through a process of elimination.

The key is to let your body lead the way. That’s a lesson I relearn every time I publish a new book, launch a new website, make a new movie or release a new album. My design team sends me sketches and comps and drafts of our new project, and if I don’t immediately experience some kind ofphysiologicalresponse, like a chuckle or an audible or gasp or a pulse in my gut or a good old fashioned eyebrow raise, then I know we haven’t nailed it yet. I know we’re still a few failures away from the truth.

And so, I keep plowing through the pile of wrongness until what I want finally floats to the surface. And it always does. It’s a matter of patience. Trusting the process. Having faith that whatever wants to emerge will find a foothold.

Remember, deciding what you want is the most important work you will ever do. Don’t be afraid to come in through the back door. Even if you have to trudge through a pile of garbage and puddle of mud to get where you want.

You can fail your way to getting what you want.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

How can you reverse engineer your desire through process of elimination?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Contrary to popular conditioning, dreaming is not inferior to the sum of the moments of reality. And dreams shouldn’t be reduced to a mere parenthesis. Just because we’re unconscious doesn’t mean we can’t take that experience seriously. After all, we spend a third of our lives asleep. We we may as well discern what questions the dream is trying to answer. What our subconscious might be trying to tell us. And the good news us, we don’t have to take classes or go to therapy or earn a degree in clinical psychology. It’s simply a matter of intentionality and discipline. Because dreams always bring more questions than answers. In fact, we are often left with very real feelings that our dreams have aroused. Ever woke up in the middle of the night and felt the need to immediately apologize to your spouse for something you never even did? It happens to everyone. And so, it’s always a useful practice to name and explore those subconscious remains. I’ve been journaling my dreams for more than a decade, thanks to the recommendation from my therapist as a morning ritual for anxiety reduction. He encouraged me to spend time first thing each morning processing the night before. Not because it would give me a comprehensive understanding of dream interpretation and help unravel the unconscious symbols of my mind, but because it’s just another chance to talk to myself about my thoughts and feelings. It’s an ongoing conversation from which I draw conclusions that move me to take action while I’m awake.Perhaps the idea of following our dreams is more literal than we realize. LET ME ASK YA THIS...

Monday, May 23, 2016

Asking makes us vulnerable. It means people can hurt us by denying us the things we want. And nobody likes giving others that much power over them.

That’s why we back down from the task. We’re afraid to ask clearly, creatively and repeatedly for what we want. Is it any wonder why we’re unhappy?

The reality is, and this is going to sound so obvious it’s stupid, asking improves our chances of receiving. Always. Even if the answer is no.

In fact, a clearly worded request still moves things forward, even when it’s rejected. The experience of asking adds energy to the system. It’s velocity. It keeps the story moving forward. And it positions us in a better context from which to raise future requests.

When I first launched my business, I had no choice but to master the technology of making an effective request. Because it was just me. No money, no experience, no knowledge and no connections.

And so, I constantly asked for support in many forms. I decided what I wanted, believed I was worthy of receiving it, trusted that I could get it, and persisted until people helped me or called security.

A humbling reminder, that success never comes unassisted. That it’s okay to enlist support. That we’re playing a small game if we’re only making the requests we think will be accepted. And that asking for help didn’t make us greedy or incompetent or in the debt of the helper.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

When will you let it be okay that you need other people?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Husserl was the grandfather of phenomenology, which is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

He believed that experience was the source of all knowledge, famously saying that learning was not the accumulation of scraps of knowledge, but a growth where every act of knowledge develops the learner, this making him capable of constituting ever more and more complex objectives.

Learning, then, was the activity of the whole being. An organic process. Not just finding out what other people already know. Not just slavish memorization of information. But real experiential education that calls for action and sensitivity and awareness and reflection.

The good news is, all you have to do is ask questions and nobody can stop you from learning anything. Here’s one of my personal favorites.

Am I learning enough through this experience to consider it part of my education?

Unpaid internships are a perfect example. Business publications and employment organizations love to demonize them as unfair, immoral, discriminating and even illegal. And maybe they are.

But whatever happened to apprenticeships? Whatever happened to journeymen? Have we become so entitled as a culture that we’ve lost touch with the humbling and satisfying challenge of working our way up the ranks?

These are the types of priceless experiential opportunities that solidify our foundations and develop us as learners and allow us to grow smarter and stronger in the future.

Just because we’re not getting paid and getting benefits and getting a corner office, doesn’t mean we can’t grow from the experience.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

Are you embracing an organic, long term learning process?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Saturday, May 21, 2016

I’ll never forget reading the story about the middle eastern farmer who became rich and famous by selling sheep using the photo sharing app on his smartphone.

Impossible.

Ali never could have dreamed of that level of economic prosperity twenty years ago. In fact, he probably comes from a long family lineage of sheep herders, most of whom wouldn’t even believe his story if he told them.

The question is, how do people step into that kind of power? How is it that some farmer in the middle of nowhere can make the impossible happen?

It starts with belief. Because if you think something hard is impossible, you’ll never even start trying to achieve it. And so, acquiring the capacity to make the impossible happen has less to do with authority, competence and influence, and more to do with initiative, commitment and resilience.

Gross'sresearchon personal reinvention coined a helpful phrase called thedesignated impossibility. It’s when you designate something as significant to yourself, recognizing that you cannot accomplish it with the power you currently have, and knowing that you must reinvent yourself or it will remain impossible.

Ali didn’t change the world, he changed himself in relation to it. He reinvented the way he thought about business and farming and communicating and marketing. And that allowed him to do battle with the impossible.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

What are you not committed to, only because you don’t believe it can be done?LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Friday, May 20, 2016

Here’s a question every entrepreneur must ask themselves. When will I have done enough to be happy with who I am? This thought haunted me for years. Because in a boundaryless system with no governor on my workload, no boss to answer to, and no separation between my personal and professional selves, I never put a proper limit on my work. I had zero sense of pace and proportion. I refused to stipend myself according to my own standard of satisfaction. And as a result, I gave in to the temptation to maximize income by working around the clock. Landing me in the hospital multiple times for stress related illnesses. If only I had understood the principle of elegant sufficiency. The ability to reach your personal level of enough. To recognize when more of something no longer means personal growth. To have done enough to be happy with who you are. I recall a fascinating article about a software company that has a strict anti workaholic policy. The founders literally punish staff members for not taking breaks. Employees are required to leave at five, putting in no more than forty hours a week. What’s interesting is, this isn’t a time management issue, it’s an existential issue. Developing a refined and selective sense of appropriateness under the circumstances is basic upkeep for the soul. It forces you to put yourself at the top of your own list. To remind yourself that who you already are is enough to get what you want. Once you arrive at that place of enoughness, there will be a part of you that’s finally resting. And from there, anything is possible. Remember, the pile never gets to zero. The list of stuff to do, things to learn and people to contact will continue to refill itself in perpetuity. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. And so, learn to stipend yourself according to your own standard of satisfaction. Figure out your definition of elegant sufficiency. LET ME ASK YA THIS...

When will you have done enough to be happy with who you are?LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Alder first hypothesized that the personality was the same in dreaming life as in waking life. And that the only difference was, in dreams, the pressure of social demands was less acute and the personality was revealed with fewer safeguards and concealments.

Out in the world, though, we’re forced to put logical chains on our whimsical appetites. We face a level of accountability and rationality and practicality that’s sufficiently intense to beat our dreams out of us.

And so, we shrink. We play small. We reluctantly accept the idea that it was irresponsible to pursue our dreams in the first place. And we stand idly by as logos wins the day. Tragic.

Linklater’s inspiring film makes a powerful point on this very issue. The character reminisces about having job that he hated and worked real hard at. And after a long, hard day of work, when he finally got to go home, get in bed and close his eyes, he immediately wakes up and realizes that the whole day at work had been a dream. Reminding the viewer that it’s bad enough that you sell your waking life for minimum wage, but now they get your dreams for free.

The trick, he says, is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. Because if you can do that, you can do anything.

That’s the thing about dreams. We can’t apply logic because the world of inspiration doesn’t follow that dynamic. And so, we practice lowering the volume of our logical brains. We put whimsy on wheels. And we take action upon our intuitive leads. Even though we’re afraid to use our intuition because we’ll have to defend it and have no logical explanation to support our actions.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

Why is it rational or logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the dream they've been put on this earth to fulfill?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For the list called, "99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren't One," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.Based on my books in The Prolific Series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today's clip comes from the hospital scene in Dallas Buyers Club:

Learn to let
the world in. Woodroof is initially hostile towards the terminally ill
transvestite. But in this moment, it occurs to him that he might be able to
help an entirely new population of patients by creating an alliance. Rayon, he
realizes, is the linchpin that can open up an entirely new marketplace of
customers who need his help. Reluctantly, he partners up and with the
streetwalker and forms a profitable membership club that they operate out of a
motel room. But over time, not only doe they begin to turn a profit, they also begin
to respect each other. Despite being shunned and ostracized by many of his old
friends, Ron treats Rayon as a friend, confidant and colleague. The two rebels,
unwilling to wait for the government’s medical establishment to save them,
don’t wait for permission, they just hire themselves and get to work. It’s a
beautiful lesson in learning to let the world in. Even if that means supporting
the very people that you once despised. This movie is a gritty example of pure
enterprise. A story about two people whose immune systems are failing, but
whose opportunity agendas are thriving. And let us not forget the story behind
the story, the one about two artists whose careers were resurrected by their
embrace of their difficult choices. Both actors transformed their bodies to
play their respective characters, both demonstrated magical cinematic prowess
in their performances, and both were bestowed with the highest awards actors
can receive. What do you see when you see
people?

Everything you do should lead to something else you
do. This movie is about an
entrepreneur who diversifies and expands his offerings. Business schools should
show it in their marketing classes. Because it teaches us to constantly
reexamine the smallest revenue centers of our enterprise. To pose the crucial
leverage question, now that I have
this, what else does this make possible?Years
ago when people started asking to work with me one on one, I created a service
called Rent Scott’s Brain. The program was unsystematic and unpolished, but it
still created value for people. And it became a solid revenue stream for my
company, despite its imperfections.
Awesome. What’s interesting is, after several dozen coaching engagements
over the years, I started to experience dimensional shifts as a service
provider, as we all do. Since there were personal skills and wisdom I wasn’t
tapping into to create value and build my business, I decided to diversify. To
expand on my current offering with better and more sophisticated variation of
my one on one service. Now the program is much more comprehensive. A unique
combination of coaching, mentoring, consulting and strategizing.That’s what’s possible when we put our
diversification caps on. With some reinvention, each of our revenue centers can
become a entirely new business unit. Each of our offerings can give ourartistic voice another outlet and
therefore activate a new market segment. And each of our services can become
another option for our clients to become involved with us in an inexpensive and
accessible way. That’s how businesses evolve. We build organically, but we
leverage strategically. What could we do
today that would be a complete step forward in your brand’s evolution?

Turn your creativity loose. For the true artist, there is no vacation. If their
eyes are open, they’re working. Always scanning the horizon, always panning for
gold, and always ready to build a home for the next great idea that appears
somewhere in the world. But they also understand that observation alone can’t
always single handedly operate the machinery of creativity. And so, they
reserve a portion of their minds for inspiring themselves. They build an
environment around themselves that allows their creativity to erupt. Joni
Mitchell comes to mind. What I loved about her was, she invented everything
about her music. From performance style to lyrics to genre to guitar tunings to
chord progressions, there wasn’t an element of her art that wasn’t original.
That’s why she became her own adjective. And so, if we want to follow her lead
and turn our own creativity loose, we ought to think about building a system of
our own. Making things that help us make things. This past year, I spent six
months developing a framework
for being prolific. It’s an
entire curriculum. A master class on creativity. A robust intellectual property
development system that demystifies my own creative process. Interestingly,
since I started to put more rigor around my own systems, it has released new
levels of output and expression in my work. Funny what happens when we embrace the
privilege of having ourselves as a client. Where
will your creativity find access to you?LET ME ASK YA THIS...

What did you learn from this movie clip?LET ME SUGGEST THIS...

For a copy of the list called, "11 Ways to Out Market the Competition," send an email to me, and you win the list for free!